Local hero Jurgen Melzer reached his fifth final in as many years on Saturday after coming from a set down to win 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 over Serb Janko Tipsarevic at the Austrian Tennis Trophy.
The seventh seed, ranked 35th in the world, becomes the first Austrian since Thomas Muster in 1995 to play a final in the capital.
Melzer has reached at least one final per season since 2005.
He picked up his only ATP title in Bucharest in 2006 but has now managed a hat-trick of Austrian title matches after Kitzbuehel last year and St Poelten in 2005.
He will play for the trophy on Sunday against the winner of the other semi-final between Croatian top seed Marin Cilic and German Philipp Kohlschreiber, the number four seed.
"It's about time for me to win another final," said the excited Melzer.
The Austrian began his comeback against last week's Moscow finalist Tipsarevic as he won a second-set tiebreak, levelling the sets score on his second set point with an ace.
In the third, the Vienna-born player held off Tipsarevic as the Serb came from 0-30 down in the seventh game.
But Melzer, now 35-29 this season, managed to earn the break with a passing shot for a 4-3 lead. He moved into the final three games later.
The win levels the record between the pair at one win each after a Tipsarevic victory last spring in Miami.
"I didn't have the best start but winning the second-set tiebreaker really helped my confidence for the third set," said Melzer.
"In the third I was feeling really good with my game. I really wanted to give all I could to win."
Melzer was playing his third semi-final of the season after Umag and Bangkok.
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
